System and method for determining social statements

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing a social statement for an account holder of a financial institution. In one example embodiment, the method includes receiving, by one or more computer processors, account holder financial data associated with the account holder, and receiving, by the one or more computer processors, account holder social data associated with one or more social networking profiles of the account holder. The method further includes associating, by the one or more computer processors, the account holder social data with the account holder financial data. In addition, the method includes identifying peer financial data associated with a peer group, and creating a social statement based at least in part on the account holder financial data, the account holder social data, and the peer financial data. Further, the method includes providing the social statement to the account holder.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS AND PRIORITY CLAIM

This application is a continuation of, and claims priority under 35U.S.C. § 120 to, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/031,263, filed Sep.19, 2013, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No.61/703,072, filed Sep. 19, 2012, the contents of both of which areincorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to systems and methods for providingstatements to an account holder and, more particularly to systems andmethods for providing social statements to an account holder of anaccount at a financial institution.

BACKGROUND

Financial institutions provide account holders or potential accountholders with balance information using a traditional balance statementthat is typically either mailed to the account holders or made availableto account holders via an online location. These traditional balancestatements do not include anonymized, aggregated financial information.Thus, an account holder who has a profile on a social networking sitedoes not have access to aggregated financial information that can allowtheir financial transactions to be compared to transactions of othermembers of their social network. Furthermore, an account holder does nothave a way to record key purchase transactions and events on his or hersocial networks.

The disclosed embodiments are directed to overcoming one or more of theproblems set forth above.

SUMMARY

In an example embodiment, the present disclosure is directed to acomputer-implemented method for providing a social statement for anaccount holder of a financial institution, comprising: receiving, by oneor more computer processors, account holder financial data associatedwith the account holder; receiving, by the one or more computerprocessors, account holder social data associated with one or moresocial networking profiles of the account holder; associating, by theone or more computer processors, the account holder social data with theaccount holder financial data; identifying peer financial dataassociated with a peer group; creating a social statement based at leastin part on the account holder financial data, the account holder socialdata, and the peer financial data; and providing the social statement tothe account holder.

In an example embodiment, the present disclosure is directed to a systemfor providing a social statement to an account holder at a financialinstitution, comprising: at least one memory configured to store dataand instructions; and at least one processor configured to access the atleast one memory and execute the instructions, causing the at least oneprocessor to: receive account holder financial data associated with theaccount holder; receive account holder social data associated with oneor more social networking profiles of the account holder; associate theaccount holder social data with the account holder financial data;identify peer financial data associated with a peer group; create asocial statement based at least in part on the account holder financialdata, the account holder social data, and the peer financial data; andprovide the social statement to the account holder.

According to various embodiments, the system and method include whereinthe identifying the peer financial data further comprises determiningone or more peer criteria based on the account holder social dataassociated with the one or more social networking profiles of theaccount holder; and identifying the peer group based on the determinedone or more peer criteria.

In some aspects, the system and method include wherein the peer criteriafurther comprises one or more of geographic area, common interests, orshared social connections.

In some aspects, the system and method further include accessingfinancial data associated with each member of the peer group; andaggregating the financial data of each member of the peer group toobtain the peer financial data.

In some aspects, the system and method include wherein the providing thesocial statement to the account holder includes displaying the socialstatement on a display of a computing device operated by the accountholder.

In some aspects, the system and method include wherein the displayingthe social statement includes displaying the social statement on thedisplay of the computing device, wherein the social statement includes arepresentation of the peer financial data.

In another example embodiment, the present disclosure is directed to amethod for notifying an account holder of a vendor, comprising:receiving, by one or more computer processors, account holder financialdata associated with the account holder, account holder social dataassociated with one or more social networking profiles of the accountholder, and peer financial data associated with a peer group; receiving,by the one or more computer processors, a current location of an accountholder; selecting one or more vendors based on the current location ofthe account holder and one or more of the account holder financial data,the account holder social data, and the peer financial data; andproviding a notification to the account holder that at least one of theone or more vendors is within a predefined proximity to the currentlocation of the account holder.

In an example embodiment, a system for notifying an account holder of avendor, comprises: at least one memory configured to store data andinstructions; and at least one processor configured to access the atleast one memory and execute the instructions, causing the at least oneprocessor to: receive account holder financial data associated with theaccount holder, account holder social data associated with one or moresocial networking profiles of the account holder, and peer financialdata associated with a peer group; receive a current location of anaccount holder; select one or more vendors based on the current locationof the account holder and one or more of the account holder financialdata, the account holder social data, and the peer financial data; andprovide a notification to the account holder that at least one of theone or more vendors is within a predefined proximity to the currentlocation of the account holder.

In some aspects, the system and method include wherein the selecting theone or more vendors includes: determining a location associated witheach of a plurality of vendors, wherein the plurality of vendorsincludes the one or more vendors; and determining that the one or morevendors are within the predefined proximity to the current location ofthe account holder.

In some aspects, the system and method include wherein the determiningthat the one or more vendors are within the predefined proximity to thecurrent location of the account holder includes: comparing the currentlocation of the account holder to a location of each of the one or morevendors.

In some aspects, the system and method include wherein the proximity isa by the set by the account holder.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various embodiments of the present disclosure, together with furtherobjects and advantages, may best be understood by reference to thefollowing description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in the several Figures of which like reference numeralsidentify like elements, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example system for providingsocial statements to an account holder at a financial institution,consistent with disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 2 is an example screenshot of a summary page of an account holder'ssocial statement, consistent with disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 3 is an example screenshot of a transactions page of an accountholder's social statement, consistent with disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 4 is an example screenshot of a spend trail page of an accountholder's social statement, consistent with disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 5 is an example screenshot of a timeline page of an accountholder's social statement, consistent with disclosed embodiments;

FIG. 6 is an example screenshot of a newsfeed page of an accountholder's social statement, consistent with certain disclosedembodiments;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating an example method for providing anaccount holder's social statement, consistent with disclosedembodiments; and

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating an example method for notifying anaccount holder of a popular vendor based on a location, consistent withdisclosed embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description is intended to convey a thorough understandingof the embodiments described by providing a number of specific exampleembodiments and details involving systems and methods for providingsocial statements for an account holder having an account at a financialinstitution. It should be appreciated, however, that the presentdisclosure is not limited to these specific embodiments and details,which are example only. It is further understood that one possessingordinary skill in the art, in light of known systems and methods, wouldappreciate the use of the invention for its intended purposes andbenefits in any number of alternative embodiments, depending on specificdesign and other needs. A financial institution and system supporting afinancial institution are used as examples for the disclosure. Thedisclosure is not intended to be limited to financial institutions andthe like.

The embodiments disclosed herein are directed to systems and methods forproviding a social statement to an account holder. According to thevarious embodiments of the present disclosure, a social statementprovider may receive account holder financial data over a network. Thesocial statement provider may be, for example, a financial institution,a social networking site, or a third-party provider. The account holderfinancial data may be associated with an account with the financialinstitution held by an account holder. The account holder financial datamay include data relating to purchases made by the account holder with acertain merchant using a card associated with the account and/or datarelating to other financial transactions performed by the accountholder. The social statement provider may further receive account holdersocial data over a network. The account holder social data may be dataprovided by one or more social networking sites. The account holdersocial data may be information associated with one or more profilescreated by the account holder at the one or more social networkingsites. For example, the account holder social data may include a list ofthe account holder's friends, interests, or geographic location that theaccount holder has previously provided to one or more social networkingsites. Examples of social networking sites include, without limitation,Facebook, MySpace, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Forexample, the account holder social data may include a list of all theaccount holder's “friends” on Facebook, along with a list of all theaccount holder's professional contacts from LinkedIn. In anothernon-limiting example, the account holder social data may include a listof all the account holder's “followers” from Twitter, along with a listof the account holder's interests from Pinterest. The account holdersocial data may include any combination of information obtained from oneor more profiles of the account holder at one or more social networkingsites.

The social statement provider may associate, via a computer processor,account holder financial data with account holder social data for agiven account holder. The social statement provider may determine, byaccessing account holder social data, who the account holder's “friends”or “connections” are within the social network. The social statementprovider may then create a social statement for the account holder basedat least in part on the account holder financial data and the accountholder social data. The social statement provider may then provide thesocial statement to the account holder.

The social statement may be based at least in part on the account holderfinancial data, the account holder social data, and on peer financialdata associated with an account holder's peer group. The peer financialdata may be aggregated financial data of members of the account holder'speer group. The peer financial data may be received from one or morefinancial institutions. The peer financial data may be anonymized. Thepeer financial data may be averaged. The peer group may comprise one ormore other members of the one or more social networking sites. The peergroup may be determined based on one or more factors that are common tothe account holder and the one or more other members. The one or morefactors may include interests, social connections, location, or thelike.

The social statement may include information comparing financialtransactions of the account holder with financial transactions of thepeer group in various spending categories. The social statement mayinclude information comparing financial transactions of the accountholder at a vendor with financial transactions of the peer group at thesame vendor. The social statement may include information showing avendor's popularity with the peer group. The social statement maycompare the account holder's account balance with the average accountbalance of the peer group. The social statement may compare the accountholder's monthly payment with the average monthly payment of the peergroup. The social statement may include the results of these examplecomparisons.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example system 100 arranged to providesocial statements for an account holder, consistent with disclosedembodiments. It should be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill inthe art that the example computing system depicted in FIG. 1 representsa generalized schematic illustration and that other components/devicescan be added, removed, and/or modified. As shown in FIG. 1, system 100can include one or more financial institutions 110 (e.g., financialinstitution 110 a, financial institution 110 b, etc.), one or moresocial network systems 120 (e.g., social network system 120 a, socialnetwork system 120 b, social network system 120 c, etc.), socialstatement system 130, one or more user devices 140 (e.g., user device140 a, user device 140 b, user device 140 c, etc.), and network 150.

System 100 may include one or more financial institutions 110. The oneor more financial institutions 110 may be any type of financialinstitution including, by way of example and not limitations, depositoryinstitutions (e.g., banks, credit unions, building societies, trustcompanies, mortgage loan companies, pre-paid gift cards or credit cards,etc.), contractual institutions (e.g., insurance companies, pensionfunds, mutual funds, etc.), investment institutions (e.g., investmentbanks, underwriters, brokerage funds, etc.), and other non-bankfinancial institutions (e.g., pawn shops or brokers, cashier's checkissuers, insurance firms, check-cashing locations, payday lending,currency exchanges, microloan organizations, crowd-fundingorganizations, third-party payment processors, etc.). In one exampleembodiment, financial institutions 110 may perform financialtransactions (e.g., process transactions by a third-party paymentprocessor, etc.) or enable the performance of financial transactions(e.g., issue cards or other financial accounts) on behalf of one or moreend users.

In various example embodiments, each financial institution 110 may havea plurality of account holders. In some embodiments, an account holdermay be any individual or entity that desires to conduct a financialtransaction using one or more accounts held at one or more financialinstitutions 110. An account holder also may be a computer systemassociated with or operated by such an individual or entity. An accountmay include any place, location, object, entity, or other mechanism forholding money or performing transactions in any form, including, withoutlimitation, electronic form. For example, an account may be a creditcard account, a prepaid card account, stored value card account, debitcard account, check card account, payroll card account, gift cardaccount, prepaid credit card account, charge card account, checkingaccount, rewards account, line of credit account, credit account, mobiledevice account, or mobile commerce account. An account may or may nothave an associated card, such as, for example, a credit card for acredit account or a debit card for a debit account. The account card maybe associated or affiliated with one or more social networking sites,such as a co-branded credit card.

System 100 may further include one or more social network systems 120.Social network systems 120 may be any type of service or platform uponwhich a user can build social networks or social relationships withothers who may share, for example, interests or hobbies, activities orcareer fields, backgrounds, or real-life connections. Social networksystems 120 may, for example, allow users to share pictures, posts,ideas, activities, events, and notifications with others in the samesocial network system 120. A social network system 120 may consist of arepresentation of each user (often referred to as a “profile”), theuser's social links, and other services related to the particular typeof social network system 120. In various embodiments, social networksystems 120 are web-based (e.g., accessible via a network such as theInternet), and provide means for users to interact with one another(e.g., text, chat, instant messaging, video calls, emails, etc.).Examples of social networking sites may include, for example and withoutlimitation, Facebook, MySpace, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest,FourSquare, Yelp, Geni.com, HR.com, Listogrophy, Raptr, Yammer, etc.

System 100 may also include social statement system 130. Socialstatement system 130 may be configured to receive a user's financialinstitution data, receive the user's social network system data,associate the user's financial institution data and social networkingdata with each other, and create a social statement for the user. Socialstatement system 130 may include one or more processors 134, one or moresocial statement processor 134, and one or more social statementdatabases 136 (e.g., social statement database 136 a, social statementdatabase 136 b, etc.). One or more processors 134 may be configured toassociate an account holder's account holder financial data with theaccount holder's account holder social data, and one or more socialstatement processors 135 may be configured to create a social statementfor the account holder. While FIG. 1 illustrates processor 134 asdistinct from social statement processor 135, it is envisioned thatprocessors 134 may be configured to perform one or more of the processesdisclosed as performed by social statement processors 135 and socialstatement processors 135 may be configured to perform one or more of theprocesses disclosed as performed by processors 134.

Social statement system 130 may store information in various electronicstorage media, such as, for example, database 136. Electronicinformation, files, and documents may be stored in various ways,including, for example, a flat file, indexed file, hierarchicaldatabase, relational database, such as a database created and maintainedwith software from, for example, Oracle® Corporation, Microsoft® Excelfile, Microsoft® Access file, or any other storage mechanism.

As described in reference to FIG. 1, social statement system 130 may beconfigured to receive account holder financial data. Account holderfinancial data may be received at processor 134 from one or morefinancial institutions 110 via network 150. The account holder financialdata may be associated with a specific account held by an account holderat a financial institution 110. The account holder financial data mayinclude any financial data that may appear on a traditional balancestatement. The account holder financial data also may include one ormore of an account balance, a total number of purchases made by theaccount holder over a period of time using the account, a total dollaramount of purchases made by the account holder at a specific merchant orvendor, a total dollar amount of purchases made by the account holder ina certain spending category (i.e., groceries, gasoline, clothing,electronics, entertainment, utilities, etc.). The received accountholder financial data may be stored in a database, such as, for example,databases 136.

In addition, social statement system 130 may be configured to receiveaccount holder social data. Account holder social data may be receivedat social statement processor 135 from one or more social networksystems 120 via network 150. The account holder social data may beassociated with one or more social network system user profilesassociated with the account holder. The account holder social data mayinclude, without limitation, information about the account holder'sfriends or associates, the account holder's gender, age, relationshipstatus, family members, interests, hobbies, social groups that theaccount holder is a member of, entertainment preferences, politicalviews, religious beliefs, favorite sports teams, and geographiclocation. The account holder social data also may include a user id andpassword corresponding to the account holder that allows the accountholder to access the account holder's own profile at social networksystem 120.

Processor 134 may be further configured to associate account holderfinancial data with account holder social data. The association processmay be accomplished by comparing an identifier corresponding to theaccount holder financial data with an identifier corresponding to theaccount holder social data. The identifier may be, for example, theaccount holder's first and/or last name, an identification number, anemail or physical address, etc. In embodiments, processor 134 mayrequire the account holder to provide the user id and passwordcorresponding to the account holder that allows the account holder toaccess their profile at social network system 120. Processor 134 maycompare the provided user id and password with the social network userid and password included in the account holder social data. If theinformation matches, processor 134 may store the account holder'saccount holder social data and account holder financial data in one ormore social statement databases 136. Processor 134 may generate anaccount holder identifier based on the account holder social data andaccount holder financial data. The account holder identifier may bestored with the account holder social data and account holder financialdata in one or more social statement databases 136.

Social statement processor 135 may be configured to create a socialstatement for the account holder. Social statement processor 105 maycreate a social statement based at least in part on the account holderfinancial data and account holder social data stored in database 106 andpeer financial data associated with a peer group. The peer financialdata may be obtained from one or more financial institutions 110. Thepeer financial data also may be stored in social statement databases136. It is anticipated that the peer group and/or the peer financialdata may be anonymized to remove personally identifying information. Invarious embodiments, social statement processor 135 may anonymize thepeer financial data. Additionally and/or alternatively, the peerfinancial data received by the social statement processor 136 may beanonymized by the one or more financial institutions 110 that providethe peer financial data. Social statement processor 135 may average thepeer financial data.

The peer group may include one or more other users from one or moresocial network systems 120. Social statement processor 135 may determinethe peer group based on one or more factors, such as, for example,geographic region (e.g., city, county, state, etc.), common interests(e.g., entertainment, hobbies, religion, political views, foods, music,etc.), accounts with a same financial institutions 110, age, gender,income level, relationship status, employer, shared social connections(e.g., friendships, family relationships, employers, etc.), birth dateor birth year, etc. The factors may be pre-programmed and stored insocial statement databases 136 and/or social statement system 130 mayallow the account holder to select the factors and store the selectedfactors in social statement database 136.

The social statement may include information comparing account holderfinancial data of an account holder with peer financial data from thepeer group. The peer financial data may be based at least in part onfinancial data received in the same manner that social statement system102 received the account holder financial data of the account holder.The social statement may include information comparing an accountholder's purchases in various spend categories against purchases made bythe peer group in the same spend categories. The spend categories may bepredetermined and stored in social system database 136. The spendcategories may also be created by the account holder. The socialstatement may include information comparing an account holder'spurchases made at a certain vendor with purchases made by an accountholder's peer group at the same vendor. The social statement may includeinformation recommending the account holder contact one of the one ormore other users from the peer group, based on whether the other usermade purchases exceeding a pre-determined amount at a specific vendor.The social statement may include information comparing an accountholder's spending over a set time period with spending by the peer groupover the same time period. The social statement may include informationcomparing optional account features selected by the account holder withthe most common account features selected by the peer group. The socialstatement may include information promoting a vendor that is popularwith the peer group in a certain spend category.

The social statement system 130 may provide a location-based alert tothe account holder. Social statement system 130 may receive the accountholder's current location based on a current location of the accountholder's user device 140. For example, a user device 140 may be equippedwith location-tracking systems and methods, such as GPS, and the userdevice 140 may transmit the current location of the user device 140 tosocial statement system 130. Social statement processor 135 may comparethe account holder's current location with the location of a vendor thathas been identified as popular with the peer group in the accountholder's social statement.

If the social statement processor 135 determines that the currentlocation of the account holder is within a set distance of the locationof the popular vendor, social statement system 130 may send anotification to the account holder. The notification may be anelectronic notification to the account holder's user device 140 vianetwork 150. The notification may be, for example, a text message,email, SMS, or other form of electronic communication. Social statementsystem 130 may include information about the popular vendor in thenotification.

The set distance (or proximity) may have been previously programmed intothe social statement processor 135. Social statement system 130 may beconfigured to allow an account holder to input the set distance him orherself. For example, the account holder may designate a set distance of1 mile. Accordingly, social statement system 130 would only transmit anotification to account holder if his current location is within 1 mileof the location of a popular vendor. Social statement system 130 may beconfigured to allow account holder to designate a type of vendor in acertain category. Thus, for example, if the account holder designatesvendors in the category of “restaurants” and a proximity of 1 mile,social statement system 130 may transmit a notification to accountholder if his current location is within one mile of a popularrestaurant.

System 100 may include one or more user devices 140. User devices 140may be any computer device, or communications device including, e.g., aserver, a network appliance, a personal computer (PC), a workstation, amobile device, a phone, a handheld PC, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a thin client, a fat client, an Internet browser, or otherdevice. A non-limiting example of a mobile device includes a smartphone(e.g., iPhone, Android-enabled phone, etc.), a tablet computer (e.g.,iPad, Kindle Fire, Playbook, Touchpad, etc.). User devices 140 may beused to access financial institutions 110, social statement system 120,and/or social network systems 130 via network 140. In addition, socialstatements may be displayed on user devices 140 when a user device 140accesses a website hosted by the financial institution. Socialstatements also may be displayed on user devices 140 when a user device140 accesses a website hosted by a social networking site. Further,social statements may be displayed on user devices 140 when a userdevice 140 accesses a third-party website or when a user device 140accesses the account holder's social networking profile page. Accessinga website may consist of, for example, providing a uniform resourcelocator (URL) to a web browser, which will then request the web pageassociated with the URL and display the requested web page on a displayof the user device 140. The information in the social statement may bedisplayed in text-based form. The information may be displayedgraphically, or as an animation, or as a combination of theaforementioned examples. The account holder may view the socialstatement by accessing a password protected account with the socialnetworking site. The account holder may view the social statement byaccessing a password protected account with the financial institution,or with some other third-party.

Financial institutions 110, social statement system 120, social networksystems, and user devices 140 may be configured to communicate via anetwork, such as, for example, network 150. Network 150 may be anycombination of a wireless network and/or wired network. For example,network 150 may include one or more of a fiber optics network, a passiveoptical network, a cable network, an Internet network, a satellitenetwork, a wireless LAN, a Global System for Mobile Communication(“GSM”), a Personal Communication Service (“PCS”), a Personal AreaNetwork (“PAN”), D-AMPS, Wi-Fi, Fixed Wireless Data, IEEE 802.11b,802.15.1, 802.11n and 802.11g or any other wired or wireless network fortransmitting and receiving a data signal.

In addition, network 150 may include, without limitation, telephonelines, fiber optics, IEEE Ethernet 902.3, a wide area network (“WAN”), alocal area network (“LAN”), or a global network such as the Internet.Also network 150 may support an Internet network, a wirelesscommunication network, a cellular network, or the like, or anycombination thereof. Network 150 may further include one network, or anynumber of the example types of networks mentioned above, operating as astand-alone network or in cooperation with each other. Network 150 mayutilize one or more protocols of one or more network elements to whichthey are communicatively coupled. Network 150 may translate to or fromother protocols to one or more protocols of network devices. Althoughnetwork 150 is depicted as a single network, it should be appreciatedthat according to one or more embodiments, network 150 may comprise aplurality of interconnected networks, such as, for example, theInternet, a service provider's network, a cable television network,corporate networks, and home networks.

It should be appreciated that the foregoing discussion related to FIG. 1is illustrative only, and that the various embodiments of the inventionmay be implemented by any other appropriate system or method. Forexample, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, social statement system 130is disclosed as a separate component from financial institutions 110 andsocial network systems 120. The embodiments also may disclose socialstatement system 130 as being integrated into financial institution 110.The embodiments also may disclose social statement system 130 as beingintegrated into social network systems 120. As referred to herein, anetwork-enabled computer system and/or device may include, but is notlimited to: e.g., any computer device, or communications deviceincluding, e.g., a server, a network appliance, a personal computer(PC), a workstation, a mobile device, a phone, a handheld PC, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a thin client, a fat client, an Internetbrowser, or other device. The network-enabled computer systems mayexecute one or more software applications to, for example, receive dataas input from an entity accessing the network-enabled computer system,process received data, transmit data over a network, and receive dataover a network. The one or more network-enabled computer systems mayalso include one or more software applications to enable the creation ofa social statement, as described herein.

FIGS. 2 through 6 each illustrate various exemplary features of anaccount holder's social statement, as created by social statement system130 and provided to a user via one or more user devices 140. Inembodiments illustrated by FIGS. 2 through 6, the social statement maybe provided via a web site associated with social network system 120.For example, the social statement may be displayed to the account holderas part of the account holder's secure profile on a social networksystem 120. The social statement also may be provided to a user via aweb site hosted by one or more financial institutions 110. Additionallyor alternatively, the social statement may be provided to a user by aweb site hosted by a third-party. While the examples of FIGS. 2 through6 illustrate a single financial account at a single financialinstitution 110, it is envisioned that the disclosed systems and methodscan display multiple accounts at a single financial institution 110and/or multiple accounts at multiple financial institutions 110.

FIG. 2 depicts an example screenshot 200 of a “summary” page of anaccount holder's social statement. In the example of FIG. 2, the socialstatement may display a balance associated with the account holder'saccount at the financial institution 110. The social statement summarypage may also display a “spend categories section.” The spend categoriessection may display an account holder's spending by category as a bargraph or a pie chart and compare it to the average spending of a peergroup based in the same spend category. In this embodiment, the socialstatement allows the user to change the peer group based on one or morefactors. For example, the account holder may change the peer group byselecting or changing a city (e.g., “McLean”), a social connection(e.g., “friends”), interests, etc.

FIG. 3 depicts an example screenshot 300 of a “transactions” page of anaccount holder's social statement. In the example of FIG. 3, thetransactions page may list recent purchases made by the account holder.In some embodiments, the transactions page may categorize the purchasesby the type of item purchased (e.g., groceries, clothing, restaurant).Further, the transactions page may list other financial transactionsmade by the account holder and/or display the name of the merchant orvendor associated with a given purchase. Still further, the transactionspage may sort the purchases by date, dollar amount, merchant or vendor,category, etc. Additionally, the transactions page may allow the accountholder to “share” information about a specific transaction with otherusers in his or her social network.

FIG. 4 depicts an example screenshot 400 of “spend trail” page of anaccount holder's social statement. The spend trail page may display aninteractive map that shows vendors that are trending up, popular, orsponsored. Systems and methods for providing a user near a point of salelocation with notifications of available rewards at a point of salelocation are disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,934,639 to Chenet al., which is incorporated herein by reference. A vendor may belisted as trending up based on the increase in frequency of transactionsassociated with that vendor over a specified period of time, made by theaccount holder's peer group. The social statement spend trail page mayonly list vendors where the account holder has made a purchase in thelast several months. The spend trail page may also display vendors thatsell similar goods or services to those sold by a vendor that theaccount holder has recently purchased from. The spend trail page maydisplay transactions by a peer group at given locations or givenvendors. The location or vendor may be specified by the account holder.The location or vendor may be based on the account holder's accountholder financial data and/or account holder social data. Thetransactions page may filter the transactions based on a spend category.In this way, the transactions page may provide an account holder withinformation showing, for example, which local vendors are trending upwith the account holder's peer group, or which local vendors are mostpopular with the account holder's peer group.

FIG. 5 depicts an example screenshot 500 of a “timeline” page of anaccount holder's social statement. The timeline page may display all thetransactions of the account holder in a “timeline” setting that is onlyshown to the account holder. The account holder may allow other users inhis or her social network to view the timeline page.

FIG. 6 depicts an example screenshot 600 of a “newsfeed” of an accountholder's social statement. As illustrated in FIG. 6, the socialstatement may be displayed as a newsfeed on an account holder's socialnetworking page. The newsfeed would be displayed to any other user ofthe social networking site who had been granted access to the accountholder's profile on the social networking site. The social statementnewsfeed may display, for example, the name of the account holder, averb describing the account holder's activity, the name of a vendorassociated with a transaction made by the account holder, the time ofthe transaction, the location of the vendor, and the spend category towhich the vendor belongs.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart 700 illustrating a method for providing a socialstatement to an account holder at a financial institution. The methodillustrated by flow chart 700 in FIG. 7 can be executed or otherwiseperformed by one or more combinations of various systems, such as, forexample, financial institutions 110, social network systems 120, and/orsocial statement system 130. Each block shown in FIG. 7 represents oneor more processes, methods, or subroutines in the example method 700.

In FIG. 7, social statement system 130 may receive account holderfinancial data (705), the account holder financial data being associatedwith an account holder at a financial institution. The account holderfinancial data may be received from a financial institution, such as oneor more of financial institutions 110. Social statement system 130 mayfurther receive account holder social data (710), the account holdersocial data being received from one or more social network sites wherethe account holder has a user profile, such as, for example, socialnetwork systems 120.

Social statement system may associate the account holder social datawith the account holder financial data (715) and store the associationin one or more social statement databases 136, along with the accountholder social data with the account holder financial data. Associatingthe account holder social data with the account holder financial datamay be accomplished by, for example, comparing a common identifierassociated with both the account holder financial data and the accountholder social data. The common identifier may be, for example, all or aportion of the account holder's name, an identification number, apreselected anonymous identifier, etc. Additionally, the account holdersocial data may include a social network user id and password. Forexample, the processor 134 may require the account holder to provide auser id and password. Processor 134 may compare the provided user id andpassword with the social network user id and password. If theinformation does not match, processor 134 may stop the process andrequire the account holder to provide a different user id and password.If the information matches, processor 134 may store the account holder'saccount holder social data and account holder financial data in socialstatement database 136 with an account holder identifier. The accountholder identifier may be generated by the processor 134 based on theaccount holder social data and account holder financial data.

Social statement system 130 may create a social statement for theaccount holder (720). The social statement may be created based at leastin part on the account holder's account holder financial data andaccount holder social data stored in social statement database 136 andpeer financial data associated with a peer group. In variousembodiments, the social statement may include information comparing anaccount holder's purchases at a given merchant with the purchases of thepeer group at the same merchant, comparing an account holder's purchasesin a given category with the purchases of the peer group in the samecategory, comparing an account holder's total dollar purchases over aperiod of time with the average total dollar purchases of the peer groupover the same period of time, comparing the most frequented merchants ofthe account holder with the most frequented merchants of the peer group,comparing the account balance of the account holder with an averageaccount balance of the peer group, etc.

Social statement system 130 may provide the social statement to theaccount holder (725). The social statement may be provided via agraphical user interface operating on a user device, such as user device140. For example, the social statement may be provided as a series ofpages that an account holder can access on a website. In variousembodiments, the social statement may be displayed on one or more ofwebsite hosted by the financial institution, a website hosted by asocial networking site, or a third-party website. The social statementalso may be accessible via the account holder's social networkingprofile page. In such embodiments, the social networking profile pagemay be a secure, password-protected profile.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart 800 illustrating a method for notifying anaccount holder of a popular vendor based on the account holder's currentlocation. The method illustrated by flow chart 800 in FIG. 8 can beexecuted or otherwise performed by one or more combinations of varioussystems, such as, for example, financial institutions 110, socialnetwork systems 120, and/or social statement system 130. Each blockshown in FIG. 8 represents one or more processes, methods, orsubroutines in the example method 800.

Social statement system 130 may receive a current location of an accountholder (805). As discussed above, the current location of the accountholder may correspond to a current location of the account holder's userdevice 140. In such embodiments, the user device 140 may be equippedwith location-based services, such as GPS. In other embodiments,however, the account holder may provide social statement system 130 withlocation information, such as a physical address, via a user interfaceof the user device 140.

Social statement system 130 may select one or more vendors (810). Insome embodiments, social statement system 130 may select the one or morevendors based at least in part on the account holder financial data,account holder social data, and peer financial data received by socialstatement system 130. The one or more vendors may be derived from thesocial statement created by the social statement system 130. The one ormore vendors may be selected based on a popularity determination, i.e.,identification of the vendors that are most popular with the accountholder's peer group. For example, the one or more vendors may beselected from the vendors listed on the “spend trail” page of the socialstatement, as shown in FIG. 4. The one or more vendors each may have alocation and the location of each vendor may be provided by the socialstatement as previously described.

Social statement system 130 may compare the location of the one or morevendors with the current location of the account holder (815). Socialstatement system 130 may compare the locations to determine how far theaccount holder is from the one or more vendors. Social statement system130 may apply one or more conditions to the comparison. The one or moreconditions may include, for example, a set distance or proximity, avendor category, etc., as discussed above.

Using the applied conditions, social statement system 130 may determineif the conditions are satisfied (820). If the social statement processordetermines that the conditions have been met (820, Yes), socialstatement system 130 may notify the account holder (825). As discussedabove, the notification may be sent electronically, for example, via oneor more of an email, text message, SMS message, etc. Additionally, thenotification may include vendor information, such as, for example, avendor address, a phone number, a link to the vendor's website, adescription of the vendor, etc. In some examples, the notification maybe sent to the account holder's mobile user device 140, such as theaccount holder's smartphone or tablet device. If the conditions have notbeen satisfied (820, No), no action is taken (830).

It is further noted that the software described herein may be tangiblyembodied in one of more physical media, such as, but not limited to, acompact disc (CD), a digital versatile disc (DVD), a floppy disk, a harddrive, read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), as well asother physical media capable of storing software, or combinationsthereof. Moreover, the figures illustrate various components (e.g.,servers, computers, processors, etc.) separately. The functionsdescribed as being performed at various components may be performed atother components, and the various components bay be combined orseparated. Other modifications also may be made.

In the preceding specification, various preferred embodiments have beendescribed with references to the accompanying drawings. It will,however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be madethereto, and additional embodiments may be implemented, withoutdeparting from the broader scope of the invention as set forth in theclaims that follow. The specification and drawings are accordingly to beregarded as an illustrative rather than restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receive, via a first networkconnection, financial data for an account holder from a financialinstitution system; receive, via a second network connection, socialdata for the account holder from a social networking system; receive,via the second network connection, user social data for a plurality ofusers of the social networking system; determining a peer group from theuser social data, the peer group having at least one social networkingprofile factor in common with the account holder; identifying, from thefinancial data, a first group of one or more vendors where the accountholder has made a purchase; identifying, from the social data, a secondgroup of one or more vendors associated with the account holder on thesocial networking system; receiving, via the first network connection,anonymized financial data for the peer group; identifying, from theanonymized financial data, a third group of one or more vendors that aremost popular with the peer group; determining a current location of theaccount holder using location-based technologies on an account holderdevice; selecting a fourth group of one or more vendors that are withina predefined proximity of the current location of the account holderbased on a comparison between the first group of one or more vendors,the second group of one or more vendors, and the third group of one ormore vendors; and providing instructions to the account holder device togenerate an interactive map on a display of the account holder deviceincluding a location-based alert with the fourth group of one or morevendors and a spend trail including a selectable element to filtertransactions for the account holder based on a spend category.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the social networking profiles factorsinclude one or more of geographic area, common interests, or sharedsocial connections.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the socialnetworking profiles factors include one or more of family members,sports teams, or hobbies.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:providing instructions to the account holder device to generate a socialstatement including a representation of the anonymized financial data.5. The method of claim 1, wherein the interactive map further includesone or more vendors that are trending, the trending being based, inpart, on the anonymized financial data.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein the spend trail comprises a comparison of the first group andthe second group to the third group.
 7. A social statement systemcomprising: a first network connection; a second network connection; oneor more processors including a social statement processor; and memory,comprising one or more social statement databases, and instructionsthat, when executed, cause the one or more processors to: receive, viathe first network connection, financial data for an account holder fromone or more financial institutions; receive, via the second networkconnection, social data for the account holder from one or more socialnetwork systems; receive, via the second network connection, user socialdata for a plurality of users of the one or more social network systems;determine, from the user social data, a peer group having at least onesocial networking profile factor in common with the account holder;receive, via the first network connection, anonymized financial data forthe peer group; identify, from the anonymized financial data, a firstgroup of one or more vendors that are most popular with the peer group;receive, from an account holder device, a current location of theaccount holder device; determine a second group of one or more vendorsthat are both in the first group and within a predetermined distance ofthe current location; and send instructions to the account holder deviceto cause the account holder device to generate an interactive map on adisplay of the account holder device including a location-based alertwith the second group.
 8. The social statement system of claim 7,wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the one or moreprocessors to: identify, from the financial data, a third group of oneor more vendors where the account holder has made a purchase; determinea fourth group of one or more vendors based on a comparison of thesecond group and the third group; and send instructions to the accountholder device to cause the account holder device to update theinteractive map to include a location-based alert including the fourthgroup.
 9. The social statement system of claim 7, wherein theinstructions, when executed, further cause the one or more processorsto: identify, from the social data, a third group of one or more vendorsassociated with the account holder from one or more social networksystems; determine a fourth group of one or more vendors based on acomparison of the second group and the third group; and sendinstructions to the account holder device to cause the account holderdevice to update the interactive map to include a location-based alertincluding the fourth group.
 10. The social statement system of claim 7,wherein the interactive map further comprises a spend trail including aselectable element to filter transactions for the account holder basedon a spend category.
 11. The social statement system of claim 7, whereinthe instructions, when executed, further cause the one or moreprocessors to: determine one or more peer criteria based on the socialdata; and identify the peer group based on the one or more peercriteria.
 12. The social statement system of claim 11, wherein the oneor more peer criteria comprise one or more of age, gender, orrelationship status.
 13. The social statement system of claim 7, whereinthe interactive map further comprises a third group of one or morevendors sponsored by the social statement system.
 14. A user devicecomprising: a display; a network connection; global positioning system(GPS), or cellular-based, locations services; one or more processors;and memory including instructions that, when executed, cause the one ormore processors to: retrieve, via the network connection, financial datafor a user from one or more financial institutions; retrieve, via thenetwork connection, social data for the user from one or more socialnetwork systems; receive, via the network connection, peer social datafor a plurality of users of the one or more social network systems;determine a peer group of two or more users of the plurality of users,the two or more users having at least one social networking profilefactor in common with the user; determine, using the location services,a current location of the user device; identify a first group of one ormore vendors where the user has made a previous purchase using thefinancial data; identify, using anonymized financial data for the peergroup, a second group of one or more vendors that are most popular withthe peer group; determine a third group of one or more vendors that are(1) within a predetermined distance of the user device and (2) are inthe first group or in the second group; and generate, on the display, aninteractive map including a location-based alert with the third group.15. The user device of claim 14, wherein identifying the peer groupincludes: determining one or more peer criteria based on the socialdata; and identifying the peer group based on the one or more peercriteria.
 16. The user device of claim 15, wherein the one or more peercriteria include one or more of interests, social groups that the useris a member of, or entertainment preferences.
 17. The user device ofclaim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the oneor more processors to: generate, on the display, a social statementincluding a representation of the financial data.
 18. The user device ofclaim 17, wherein the social statement further includes a representationof the anonymized financial data.
 19. The user device of claim 14,wherein the third group includes vendors that are in the first group andin the second group.
 20. The user device of claim 14, wherein theinteractive map further comprises a spend trail including a selectableelement to filter transactions for the user based on a spend category,the spend trail including vendors that are trending up, popular, orsponsored.